Our exclusive South Pacific islands coverage returns on BSCB. Tonga is a Polynesian archipelago composed of 177 islands spread over 700.000 km2 (270.000 sq mi) and stretching over 800 km (500 mi) in a north-south line, about a third of the distance from New Zealand to Hawaii. It has 100.651 inhabitants, 70% of which lives on the main island of Tongatapu. See exact location on the map below.

Tonga location (picture courtesy Wikipedia)

Tonga is one of the smallest new car markets in the world, with just 62 sales in 2018 (that’s roughly 5 per month), down one unit or 1.6% on 2017. Toyota (-5.7%) continues to suffocate the market with a 80.6% share, while Mazda (+50%) overtakes Hyundai (-33.3%) for 2nd place and Nissan reappears at #4. In the models ranking, the Toyota Hiace soars 46.7% to end 4 consecutive years of reign by the Toyota Hilux (-37.5%).